Friend usually explains references to me if I didn't see whatever it was she's talking about, like Dark Shadows.

I had a couple of friends, a mother and a daughter, and I was exactly halfway in age between them.One day I was with Daughter, and all I caught of a radio announcement was that a person had committed suicide, so I asked her 'Who died?' She replied, 'Kurt Cobain' and went on to explain to me who Kurt Cobain was.I looked at her and said, 'I'm not THAT old that I don't know who Kurt Cobain is! I just didn't hear the name!'Being the child of older parents, she was used to automatically giving pop culture explanations...

My brother is 19 and in the military. He's always been a bit of a loose canon, and my parents had gotten into several fights with him about underage drinking, staying out past curfew, etc. when he was in high school. Me? Nothing. I was the good kid. Now, he comes home and they don't even attempt to tell him what to do and he comes and goes as he pleases. Yet they think that they can tell the responsible 22-year-old with her own car and income to come home at a certain hour, or to not drink, or to do or not do this and that. Really?

I was originally going to put this in the SS thread, but I think the person featured herein isn't really SS, just ... totally clueless. My brain really did hurt after witnessing this.

I was driving down a very busy road yesterday. There are a series of four stoplights in a row. One light leads to a mall and a Target (so very busy on a Saturday afternoon) and the other three lead to various highways (also very busy on a Saturday afternoon). Traffic is always backed up in this area on the weekends, and cars frequently are still in the intersection after the light has changed. Usually they just continue driving through and all is fine. Except my not quite SS. Who stayed in the intersection after the light changed.

They tried to drive forward after a bit, but were blocked by cars who had a green light and were going straight. So they reversed a bit to be out of the way of those cars, only to find themselves in the way of cars who had a green light and were going straight in the other direction. The car then tried to drive forward a bit (why, I don't know, since it hadn't worked before) and found itself in the way of both directions of cars who were trying to turn left. The car finally reversed enough to be out of the way. By this point, it was a green light for us again, and we were waiting for that car to move, since it now had a green light. It didn't though. Someone finally honked at it after a bit, and we found out that whoever was driving that car had actually put it in park, apparently not expecting anyone behind him to have to go either.

It didn't stop there though! I ended up about two cars behind this particular car, which I was watching closely to see what else would happen. That car almost didn't brake in time for a line of cars stopped at the next light, and had to be honked at again to continue moving when the green light came! Thankfully, it got over into a left turn lane and I was able to keep going, so I didn't have to deal with it anymore.

I still, a day later, wonder what on earth was going on, and who was driving, that they would be so idiotic!

It's called "gridlock" and happens often. No one ever comes out a winner, makes a right decision, or stays calm. I understand the utter confussion and near panic of that poor driver, and your annoyance with him.

I had a driver like that in front of me a few months ago in an area with multiple red lights in a row. We were pretty much the only cars on the road so it wasn't as dramatic or dangerous, but still annoying. We had to stop at every red light, as is very common along this gods-forsaken stretch of road. When the light would turn green, the guy would just sit there. I could see through his back window well enough to see that he wasn't fiddling with the radio or talking on a phone or whatever. He seemed to be staring straight ahead and just ignoring the fact that the light had turned green. So I tapped my horn, he jumped a little and then drove forward. To the next light, where the entire procedure repeated itself.

This happened at least three or four times within a maybe five minute period. My working hypothesis is that the driver was a goldfish in human form, and every time the car stopped he'd forget what he was doing and think, "Well, I guess I live here now!" until my horn made him look around and realize, "Oh my goodness, I'm in a car!" Then he'd drive to the next light, stop, and think "I must live here now!"

It is really sad that the thought of the driver being a goldfish is just as likely an explanation as any for the sheer stupidity of that driving... I always figure it's either somebody really old who ought not to be ON the road any longer, who panics and freezes up. OR, it's a new teen, who needs more instruction on how to avoid such things.

The thing about gridlock that always annoys the snot out of me is when I sit back behind the crosswalk, because I KNOW I can't clear the intersection before the light changes, and some fool honks at me to GO. Where I've lived in California, there are some healthy fines for blocking the intersection, so while I may get caught every so often, I will never deliberately enter when I'm not pretty sure I'll can leave on the other side within THAT cycle of the lights.

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Newly widowed, fairly cranky, prone to crying at the drop of a hat. Newly a MIL; not yet a Grandma. Keeper of chickens and dispenser of eggs! Owner of Lard Butt Noelle, kitteh extraordinaire!

My brother is 19 and in the military. He's always been a bit of a loose canon, and my parents had gotten into several fights with him about underage drinking, staying out past curfew, etc. when he was in high school. Me? Nothing. I was the good kid. Now, he comes home and they don't even attempt to tell him what to do and he comes and goes as he pleases. Yet they think that they can tell the responsible 22-year-old with her own car and income to come home at a certain hour, or to not drink, or to do or not do this and that. Really?

I think my Mom is related somehow to your parents. My Mom got 2 really good kids - bro and I didn't cause trouble, were excellent students, didn't party hard, etc. So she never had to deal with teenage rebellion.

During the summer after I graduated with my bachelor's and was heading off to grad school in the fall, I bought my first car. I'm 22 years old, and I'm 1.5 weeks away from leaving for school. A high school friend called one day and invited me to a party at her house on the upcoming weekend. I'm in city P and she's in city C, about 3 hours between them. I told her that I didn't think I could make it.

After I hung up, Mom asks what Jenny wanted and I told her. Mom then seizes her one and only opportunity to deal with "teenage rebellion!" and sternly tells me that you. are. not. going. I look at her funny, cock my eyebrow up a la Spock, and inform her that she really doesn't have a way of preventing a 22 year old adult with her own car from traveling, especially since I could leave from Jenny's and just head on up to my apartment that I have rented in grad school town.

That reminds me of when my mother moved from Liverpool to London in the 50's. When she went back home to visit for a while, she went out with her friends and got home around 1:00 a.m. There was her mother at the doorway, utterly furious, saying "WHAT TIME DO YOU CALL THIS?" Mum said "You have no idea what I get up in London, Mum. Face it, I've grown up."

My brother is 19 and in the military. He's always been a bit of a loose canon, and my parents had gotten into several fights with him about underage drinking, staying out past curfew, etc. when he was in high school. Me? Nothing. I was the good kid. Now, he comes home and they don't even attempt to tell him what to do and he comes and goes as he pleases. Yet they think that they can tell the responsible 22-year-old with her own car and income to come home at a certain hour, or to not drink, or to do or not do this and that. Really?

I think my Mom is related somehow to your parents. My Mom got 2 really good kids - bro and I didn't cause trouble, were excellent students, didn't party hard, etc. So she never had to deal with teenage rebellion.

During the summer after I graduated with my bachelor's and was heading off to grad school in the fall, I bought my first car. I'm 22 years old, and I'm 1.5 weeks away from leaving for school. A high school friend called one day and invited me to a party at her house on the upcoming weekend. I'm in city P and she's in city C, about 3 hours between them. I told her that I didn't think I could make it.

After I hung up, Mom asks what Jenny wanted and I told her. Mom then seizes her one and only opportunity to deal with "teenage rebellion!" and sternly tells me that you. are. not. going. I look at her funny, cock my eyebrow up a la Spock, and inform her that she really doesn't have a way of preventing a 22 year old adult with her own car from traveling, especially since I could leave from Jenny's and just head on up to my apartment that I have rented in grad school town.

Did she not hear you say "I don't think I can make it?"

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Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. Be cheerful, strive to be happy. -Desiderata